The present invention deals with an electrical connector of a type which is provided in a form which embraces an electrical terminal having a front end adapted to mate with a further terminal such as a post and a rear end adapted to be terminated to an insulated electrical wire, the terminated terminal being inserted into a plastic housing which serves to insulate the terminal from surrounding terminals and the conductive elements of circuits and components. The connector involved typically comes in a family wherein the connector housing may accommodate 2, 4, 6, 8 or as many as 30 or more terminals in separate cavities in plastic housings which have an appropriate number of terminal positions. This means automatically that the housings of the connector family are of different dimensions as related to the number of positions involved, 2, 4, 6, 8 and so forth. In the particular situation here involved, the matter is complicated by virtue of the fact that the connector family, in addition to having multiple positions, comes in more than one style with the dimensions of the two styles adding a second and perhaps a third set of dimensions which have to be dealt with. As a general rule, when connectors of the foregoing type are handled by individual operators, the operator performs the function of adjusting the tooling in accordance with the dimensions of the connector and terminal involved. In the present case, the invention embraces an operator assist machine which itself indexes and fixtures the connector preparatory to wire termination, assists in the termination of the wire in the terminal, and feeds the connector out from under the terminating tooling. As can be appreciated with indexing and feeding mechanisms having fixed displacement motions and dimensioned parts, it is usually necessary for an operator to physically make adjustments as between connectors of differently numbered positions or dimensions and particularly, with respect to connectors of different physical shapes. This creates a need frequently for a readjustment or fine tuning of the machine, all of which takes time and particularly skilled labor and in general, results in a lower productivity than if such can be accommodated without the need for adjustments as between connectors of different positions or dimensions.
A second aspect of the invention relates to maintaining the dimensional integrity of terminals and housing elements to allow a precision termination in an assembly of parts which must be eventually fitted together but which initially must allow access to a portion of the terminal for termination which portion is subsequently covered over by the housing of the connector. This problem is exacerbated when the critical elements of the connector housing and terminal are quite small, the center-to-center spacings are also quite small and the practical tolerances of parts have to be made consistent with mass production and low cost of units to meet market demands. In this regard, it has been found useful to provide assemblies of terminals having the carrier strips formed of the metal from which the terminals are made, left attached to thus hold the terminals on the center-to-center spacings as carried in the dies of manufacture, the source of very tight tolerances indeed when compared with single loose piece terminals.
This practice leaves the carrier strip attached until a time after the terminals have been terminated to electrical wires and requires that the carrier strip be removed therefrom so that the individual terminals will be individually isolated in an electrical sense. Additionally, the terminals have to be loaded into their respective cavities or passages within the housings of the connector, again calling for certain dimensional integrity in terms of the relative position of portions of the terminals and portions of the housing, wires terminated in the terminals, all of which is difficult to control without, in normal cases, machines of substantial complexity, tight tolerances and numerous facilities for adjustment of engaging surfaces. A further problem with assemblies of the type just discussed has to do with the removal of the carrier strip following termination and in conjunction with the insertion of the terminals into the housing.
The background to appreciate is one of dealing with very small metal and plastic parts made to have tolerances as wide open as possible and at the same time providing an operator assist machine and method for handling such assemblies of housings and terminals without undue complexity or need for constant tuning and adjustments, all of which lead to poor productivity. As can be appreciated by those skilled in the machine arts, the provision of parts to be worked upon or assembled wherein the parts are of constant and fixed dimension, tightly controlled, vastly simplifies machine design, construction, and maintenance. On the other hand, variation in dimensions either caused by loose tolerances associated with lower costs or dimensional variations deliberately designed into the part or parts for whatever reasons, including as in the present case, a desire to accommodate connectors having a widely varying number of terminal positions as well as connectors having different exterior designs creates a difficult problem.